Mayor Mack says I don't' to weddings

During his first term, the mayor has outsourced his wedding officiant duties — a task he can perform — to a clergyman and billed taxpayers.

“The people come to get married at City Hall because they want to be married by the mayor,” outgoing Council President Phyllis Holly-Ward said Thursday during a budget hearing, discussing a line item in the mayor’s account for the weddings. “If it’s a service that he would like to provide, then he should be doing it.”

The services ran anywhere from $15 to $45 and were performed by Clarence Matthews, according to Mack’s expense reports obtained by The Trentonian.

Neither the Mack administration nor Matthews responded for comment.

At the budget hearing, Sam Hutchinson claimed Mack wasn’t the only mayor to dish out the vow reciting duties.

“What has been done in the past prior to Mayor Mack, and in fact I believe it was more, was they used a clergy person to perform the civil ceremonies,” Hutchinson said.